An exhibition of the photographs of John Garstang will be opening in the Fethiye Cultural Centre soon. Entitled ‘An English Archaeologist in Turkey’, the exhibition will include prints of 50 photographs of Turkey taken by Garstang in 1907-8. The exhibition will run from 11th to 17th july. The opening ceremony will be at 5pm on Monday 11th July. Entry is FREE.

This exhibition has been made possible by the very kind sponsorship of FETAV.

A life-size image of John Garstang is now welcoming visitors to the Victoria Gallery and Museum. The image of Garstang, which was taken from his own photographic collection held at the University, was made into a standie by our sponsors at Blue Tree design and print. Look out for other historical characters as they appear in the exhibition!

During in 1907 survey, John Garstang visit a series of artificial settlement mounds near the village of Sakje Geuzi (Sakçagöze, Turkey). The smallest of mounds, locally called Coba Höyük (written as ‘Jobba Eyuk’ by Garstang), was found to have carved stones littered across its surface, which were thought to date from the Hittite period.

The surface of Coba Höyük before it was excavated in 1908. Refno: SG-278: 'Sakje Geuzi'

Garstang returned to the site a year later to carry out a short experimental dig of the mounds on behalf of the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology. His primary aim was to gather enough evidence to prove to funders that the site was worthy of a full scale excavation. His team dug exploratory trenches in all of the mounds, but carried out a more detailed excavation of Coba Höyük, as it was the smallest mound and appeared to be the most likely to contain remains from the Hittite period.

The team discovered that pottery and other artefacts which suggested that the mounds had been occupied from the Neolithic period onwards. Stratification in the trenches gave evidence that the mounds had been built up over time as each culture had built on top of the ruins and rubbish of their predecessors.

The sculptured stones on Coba Höyük were found to be part of an entrance of a temple or palace dating from the later Hittite period and initially thought to date from between 880BC and 730BC. The portico comprised two almost identical lion sculptures followed by a sphinx, and various reliefs which would have formed a procession around the entrance. They also discovered a pedestal supported by two sculptures of sphinxes, which Garstang believed were part of an altar or a base of a pillar to support the entrance.

Image of the portico as it was being excavated in 1908. Refno: SG-054: 'Sakje Geuzi No. 41 'Sakje Geuzi: Portico with Sculptures, view''

The significance of the finds led to the formation of the Hittite Excavation Committee in the Institute of Archaeology, to fund further excavations in the region.

Sources:
John Garstang (1908) ‘Excavations at Sakje-Geuzi, in North Syria: Preliminary Report for 1908’, Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Vol. 1, pp97-117.

John Garstang (1913) ‘Second Interim Report on the Excavations at Sakje-Geuzi in north Syria, 1911’ Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Vol. V pp63-72.

At this date most of the expeditions carried out by the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology were funded by a number of external sponsors, many of whom sat upon the Institute’s Committees. The 1911 Sakçagöze excavation was funded by the newly formed Hittite Excavation Committee, which featured many prominent men of the day, including the chemical industrialist John Brunner, Assyriologist Archibald Sayce, and pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry S Wellcome, (founder of the Wellcome Trust).

'Mond's Aerial Railway', 1911. Refno: SG-135: 'Sakje Geuzi No. 103'

Robert Ludwig Mond, (1867-1938), chemist and archaeologist, was the treasurer of the Hittite Excavation Committee. As well as donating funds for the 1911 excavation, he also provided advice and assistance in the progress of work and in the details of equipment to be used. He suggested that Garstang should employ an aerial railway, an automated system of ropes and pulleys to move equipment, artefacts and soil around the site, during the excavation. The machine was designed and made for Garstang at cost by R White and Sons of Widnes.

Source: John Garstang (1913) ‘Second Interim Report on the Excavations at Sakje-Geuzi in north Syria, 1911’ Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Vol. V, pp63-72.

‘Anatolian Archaeology’ magazine has featured a picture from John Garstang’s photographs of Turkey on their front cover. Inside there is a short article, with more pictures, about the scanning project. There’s a .pdf of the article on our ‘Research’ page and below, by kind permission of the British Institute at Ankara.

Here is a report by Tara Clare, one of the last interns working on the digital archive part of the project. Tara is interested in archaeology and wishes to pursue a career in the museum sector. She has an MA in Archaeology from the University of Liverpool and has previously digitized and catalogued medical x-rays whilst volunteering at the Victoria Gallery and Museum.

“Fay Riding and I were the last two interns to work on the digitisation process, for the upcoming ‘Lost Gallery’ exhibition at the Victoria Gallery and Museum. I was really excited to begin work, although with the fear of making a mistake it was a bit daunting at first. However my nerves were soon quelled by the excellent training, initial supervision and support by Katie and JR. Along with Fay, I was shown how to work the equipment which consisted of a digital camera suspended above a specially designed wooden frame that could be adjusted to securely hold negatives over a light box. Work was alternated between handling the negatives and taking the images, which were fed directly to a P.C using Lightroom3, to cataloguing the relevant information on another P.C in an excel spreadsheet document. I had previously been given hand outs before the start of the internship to become familiar with cataloguing and handling guidelines. In addition I received hands on training on the correct handling of the objects and had the opportunity to work with glass plate negatives, lantern slides and film negatives, some of which were damaged and needed to be handled carefully. In addition Katie showed us how the negatives were to be repackaged.

The images I got to work with were fascinating. The collection focused around professor Garstang’s travels across Egypt, Turkey and Europe. Mostly they appeared to be holiday snaps including numerous photographs taken from tours down the Nile and visits to Venice and Athens. One photograph taken from an excavation in Egypt proved particularly interesting. The image of an excavation camp had been carefully coloured in, with one tent in lime green. It stood out in stark contrast to all the other negatives for its brightness and presented a stimulating new outlook. Not only are the images of an archaeological interest consisting of many photographs of Egyptian and Hittite artefacts, diagrams and site plans, but they provide a cultural insight into Turkey and Egypt in the early 20th Century; at peoples attire, their homes, the way of life for nomadic travellers to those leaving in settlements. Using the Internet it was intriguing to see how places identified in the photographs have changed over the decades. During my internship we got to see a lot of personal photographs from Garstang’s life. It was charming to go through these family portraits attempting to identify the people and their relationship to Garstang. Some proved quite humorous, most notably one of a possible Garstang diving naked into a river. Before I began the internship I was aware of Professor Garstang through my studies at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool and volunteering on the Egyptian gallery in the World Museum Liverpool that showcases a lot of his collection. However through my time on the digitisation process I have learnt a lot more about him and his work. I look forward greatly to visiting the completed exhibition in the Victoria Gallery and Museum.

Most of the two weeks was spent in the basement however we were given the opportunity, which I really appreciated, to look around the Garstang Museum and the Victoria Gallery and Museum were the Lost Hittite Gallery will be exhibited. We were also spoilt to lovely complementary lunches! I thoroughly enjoyed my time doing the internship, I feel grateful for all the opportunities to further my learning and most importantly getting to work with wonderful people. I am very thankful I was invited to take part in this project.”